Cowgirls Win Five-Game Thriller

In exciting fashion, the WyomingCowgirl Volleyball (5-3 overall) closed out their weekend with a fivegame victory over the St. Mary's Gaels (2-6 overall). The Cowgirls wonby scores of 30-22, 22-30, 30-27, 26-30 and 15-12.

It was a homecoming of sorts as former volleyball player VanessaKiremidjian returned as an assistant coach with the Gaels. They were ledby Rachel Avilla, who notched 16 kills and six digs. Saint Mary's hit.142 (60-34-183) and had eleven blocks.

Sophomore Michele Rauter finished the night with a career high 27kills, along with hitting .411 and adding nine digs. Rachel Lau also hadan excellent night with 18 kills, four block solos and seven blockassists. The Cowgirls hit .182 (74-38-198) and tallied 13 total teamdigs.

"Going into this match, we knew we would have to make some adjustmentswith the injury to Melissa Robinett," said head coach Susan Steadman."We had to go to the extreme with moving Jill Roslund to the middleposition and Katie Jarman to the outside hitter spot, but the thing thisteam did was make the adjustment and stuck together. We were very up anddown emotionally, and that was about the only thing I got frustratedwith. "

"But, I have to give Michele Rauter a lot of credit. She had anunbelievable performance. I'm so proud of the way she is stepping up andtaking on a huge offensive role for us. We're always our best when wehave a good performance from each team member, but when someone steps upand takes control like she did, I'm very proud of that."

"But, the bottom line is that a win is a win. We can feel a lot bettergoing into this week's matches, and starting the conference season."

Wyoming will open up their conference season next week on the road.They will play UNLV on Friday night and San Diego State on Sundayafternoon.